Woman hit by court sign awarded Rs 19 lakh

July 9, 2012

new_delhi

New Delhi, July 9: A woman who became mentally disabled after a signboard at the Rohini district court fell on her head has been awarded a compensation of Rs 19 lakh by the Delhi High Court, which brushed aside claims of the defendants that the incident was an "act of God".

The victim, Harinder Kaur, was in the court premises pursuing a dispute against her estranged husband when the 'District Court Rohini' board fell on her from the rooftop, where it was loosely tied.

Justice Vipin Sanghi, in an order released earlier this week, asked the Rohini district court, PWD and MCD to compensate Kaur for their negligence that left her with permanent, 70% mental disability.

The high court also rapped the court administration and other civic agencies for ignoring municipal bylaws in putting up the board. "Facts speak for themselves and tell their own story of negligence, so as to establish a prima facie case against the respondents... The respondents have shifted liability from one to another," Justice Sanghi noted, holding the authorities responsible for the injury.

Kaur's 65-year-old mother had approached HC for compensation through advocate Pankaj Batra, who first argued that the placement of the signboard violated laws. He also placed on record RTI replies that revealed that PWD had failed to take mandatory permission from the MCD commissioner before putting up the board. The petition said the board was installed above a passage in the complex and it fell on Kaur as she was walking into the complex.

Citing Kaur's medical reports, Batra alleged that the injuries had resulted in her being unable to sleep and left her totally disoriented with no possibility of being employed.

After initially passing the blame amongst each other, the Rohini court administration, the PWD and the MCD attributed Kaur's injury to an "act of God" in view of the inclement weather on the day of the incident. They argued that the board fell due to strong winds and rains, and not because of negligence on their part.

But HC brushed aside the explanation saying squalls, duststorms and rain were a regular feature in Delhi. "Negligence is writ large on the part of the respondents. They can't in the garb of inclement weather shirk from their responsibility of complying with provisions of law and taking reasonable precautions so as to keep away all persons from harm," the court added.




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News Network
May 28,2020

Hyderabad, MAY 28: A three-year-old boy who accidentally fell into a newly drilled open borewell in Telangana's Medak district was found dead in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

The kid's body was retrieved at around 4 am after a nearly 10 hours' long rescue operation involving different agencies, they said.

"He died a while before we evacuated him, most likely due to the mud that covered him from the top sealing off necessary oxygen supply, " Medak District Superintendent of Police Chandana Deepti told PTI.

The boy had accidentally slipped into the 120- feet borewell at around 5 pm on Wednesday in an agricultural field located in Papannapet mandal of the district when he was walking with his grandfather and father, police earlier said.

As part of rescue efforts, a parallel trench was dug along the borewell hole with the help of earth excavating machines and oxygen was supplied into it, but the efforts went in vain as the boy's body was found stuck at a depth of around 25 feet, the police said.

Apart from the police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel were also involved in the rescue operation.

The borewell into which the child fell was one among the three dug by the family since Tuesday night to try and find water for their fields. But none of them yielded any water, police had said.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Nagpur, July 21: In a shocking incident, an 11-year-old boy allegedly killed self in Maharashtra's Nagpur city after being reprimanded by his mother for buying a samosa, police said on Tuesday.

Veeru Natthu Sahu was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his home in Ganga Nagar in Gittikhadan area on Sunday night, an official said.

The deceased boy's family was struggling to make ends meet after their small business was hit because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, he said.

The Class 7 student had taken Rs 10 from home without asking his mother and bought a samosa, which was then eaten by his elder brother, the official said.

The boy's mother scolded him for taking money without her permission and asked him to get the snack for himself, following which the distraught minor allegedly went into the kitchen and hanged himself using a saree, he said.

The Gittikhadan police have registered a case of accidental death in this regard, the official added.

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Agencies
March 15,2020

Mumbai, Mar 15: Three suspected coronavirus patients who were quarantined left a government hospital in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district on Saturday evening without informing anybody, the police said.

By late night, however, two of them returned to the Ahmednagar district civil hospital. Search was on for the third patient, a Topkhana police station officer said.

Earlier, two women and a man admitted to an isolation ward of the district hospital in Ahmednagar, left without informing the doctors, an officer said.

The civil surgeon contacted the Tophkhana police station in Ahmednagar city and sought polices help in tracing these persons, whose medical reports are awaited, the official added.

A person in Ahmednagar district is among the 31 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Maharashtra.

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